About making an attractive web site for your virtual airline.

The most important aspect of a Virtual Airline is its website. It is impossible to create a Virtual Airline without a website. How you create your Virtual Airlines we site it is up to you. Besides the homepage, you’ll want six sections. Pilot Registration should show future pilots requirements and the information that you think that you should know about them before joining your virtual airline. Aircraft Fleet where pilots may download planes with the correct paint scheme of your virtual airline. News, this is where pilots can find quick info on the virtual airline, such as expansion, virtual stocks, etc. Roster this is another required page for your virtual airline’s website, it should be updated frequently and will show pilots how many total hours they have shown and what their status and or rank is.

Making your virtual airline's web site easy to use and user friendly.

Your virtual airline’s website should be easy to navigate and be pleasant looking. Many times newcomer pilots will judge your virtual airline on your webpage alone and is their first impression of your virtual airline. The main page should show potential pilots your base of operation, what kind of virtual airline you are and some information about where your virtual airline flies.

Making your virtual airline web site welcoming.

You could create a "welcoming" page, which will give new pilots a summary of your virtual airline, and then a link to the actual site itself. This is a very affective method, and one way to jazz it up is to create an virtual airline logo, using a .GIF animator You may also take pictures of your virtual airline’s fleet in action, which really attracts pilots. Simply use the photo option in the flight simulator menu, take the picture of your virtual airline’s aircraft and put it on your web site.

Using frames in your virtual airline's web site.

The easiest way to get to the five major sections of the site is using a frame. However, if you make a frameset, you should also make a version of your site without frames, as some pilot’s browser will not be able to read the HTML code. Now let’s talk about when your virtual airline gets a lot of pilots. The more pilots you get, the more chances you may have pilots from different countries who speak different languages, this means, you’ll have to hire a more staff for your Virtual Airline and that can speak different languages.

How to attract pilots to your virtual airline.

Attracting pilots to your virtual airline may be the hardest part. Hundreds of new CEOs have given up with their virtual airline because they couldn’t attract any pilots. Take Great Lakes Express Virtual Airlines, they started out very little, and now have over 300 members. That’s a lot for a virtual airline. If things start out slow for your virtual airline don’t get let down. You may also want to create banners with a banner exchange program for your virtual airline (type in free advertising or banners in any search browser). You can usually make custom banners easily and then they will be advertised for free on other relevant sites. It is extremely important to advertise your virtual airline on web sites that are related and relevant but not in direct or indirect competition.

Marketing your virtual airline on the internet.

Yet another way is to register your virtual airline with a search engine. Go to a browser’s site like Lycos, and look for hypertext that says, "register your site." Usually, the more sites search drivers have listed the better, so they’ll be glad to list your virtual airline. But probably the best way to go is simply trying to get your site on a virtual airline server. Remember never to give up, if it’s one thing the Virtual Airline community doesn’t like it’s Virtual airlines that pop up for a few weeks, and when the CEO notices they’re not attracting pilots, they give up.

Your virtual airline's management.

It is your management who decides what the hubs will be, or whether or not the Virtual Airline will merge with another. All these aspects, which the management team is in watch of, make your virtual airline seem more realistic. Remember, management isn’t a one-man job, so here is a list of those you will need. Note: all titles with the *, are optional members of the management.